Improvement in shaping wood for ox-bows



UNITED ASTATES 'PATENT OFFICE. 4

HIRAM S. DENISQN, OF GOLERAIN'E, MASSACHUSETTS.`

IMPROVEMENT IN SHAPING woon-FOP. ox-Bows.

, ISpecification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,249, dated October 13, 1863.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known thatI, HIRAM S. DENIsoN, of Coleraine, in the county of Franklin and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Machine for Shaping Wood Used in Manufacturing OX-Bows; and I do hereby declare that the samel is fully described and repre sented in the following specification and th accompanying drawings, of which- Y Figure 1 exhibits a top view of said machine; Fig. 2, a side elevation of it; Fig. 3, a central, vertical, and transverse section of it; Fig. 4,

Y a central, vertical, and. longitudinal section of it; Fig. 5, an end view ot' it. In thefdrawings, A denotes the frame of the machine, the same being provided Vwith y two parallel and horizontal rails, B B, which serve for supporting and guiding a carriage, C, arrangedonthem, as seeni'n andi-1 This carriage has a toothed' rack, D, fixed to it, and made toA engage with a gear or pinion, E, that is carried by a horizontal shaft, F, which, when the machine is in operation, should be put in revolution in such manner as to produce a rectilinear movement of the carriage on its Ways with the velocity that may be desirable to enable the stick or bow blank to be properly reduced by the cutter-cylinder. This-cutter cylinder (marked G) is fixed on a rotary or driving shaft, H, which is arranged with reference to the carriage, or above the same, as shown in the drawings. An endless band, I, working around a pulley, K, (on the said shaft,) and another pulley, L, situated on the pinion gear shaft, serves to put the latter shaft in revolution. The rotary cutter-cylinder is grooved on its periphery and on each of its cutters, as shown at a, andit has arranged directly underneath it a bearing-roller, M, which is fixed upon a horizontal shaft, O, whose journals are supported in boxes or'slides P P,that play vertically and rest, respectively, on curved pattern-rails R R, anxed to the upper surface of the carriage hereinbefore described. Springs S S serve to press the journal-slides firmly in contact with said pattern-rails. To the rear end, or to each end of the carriage C, a wide plate or standard, T, is affixed, and made to project above said carriage, as well as somewhat above the lower part of the cutter-cylinder, as shown in the drawings. v

In operating with this machin e, the piece of and directly between the standards T T thereof,

rest on the periphery of the said roller, and have its rear end held up by and in contact with the front face o1" the rear plate or standard, T.

' In Figs.- 6 and -7 I have represented the general form and appearance of oX-bow blanks before being submitted to the action or operation of the said machine, and I would remark that they are generally rived or split fromy pieces of hickory, and so as to have a sectoral form in crosssection, the bark being preserved on the arc of the sector. After astick of wood has been thus split lengthwise into blanks,I

each ot said blanks, by means of a proper or suitableftool nrimachjne is.reduced a short distance from each of its ends to a cylindrical form, as shown at e e in each of the last two figures, such portions of the blank bein g` those usually inserted vin the ox-yoke.

lThe purpose of my' machineis to reduce to'v the proper form, or approximately so, the remainder or middle portion of the' blank, leavf` ing the bark, or a considerable portionthereof, on the same, as itis only those bows which exhibit the bark that bring the highest price in the market, such as have no bark on them being considered inferior articles. These blanks, after being split, are seldom straight, they being crooked more or less in various directions. My machine is calculated for re` ducing them and rounding their middle parts while they are cro'oked as well as when they are straight.V

While the machine is in operation on a stick or blank the latter is grasped 'at its rear end by an attendant, who, while the stick is advancing under the cutter-cylinder and resting on the roller underneath the same, moves said stick laterally or up and down or changes the position of its rear end against the face ofthe rear standard, T, as occasion may require, in order to enable the cutters to cut 'square to the stick, orreduce it at vright angles to its axial line, and thereby main tain on the curved lower edge' of the stick as much of the bark as possible. Were the stick held firmly at its two ends by means of center-pins, it could not be rounded or cut-to any advantage. 'if

I am aware that it is not new to axapiece wood to be reduced is placed on the carriage of wood in a carriage or frame and regulate the movement of such carriage or frame toward a cutter-wheelvby means of a pattern or guides, and so as to cause such piece ot' wood to be ont or reduced in conformity to the pattern, such being accomplished in inachines or lathes. tor turning,` oars, lasts, andgunstocks, or for shaping various irregular forms. Therefore, Ido notI claim this principle.

In iny machine the piece of wood to be reducedis not fastened in a carriage or to center points carried by the'same, but it simply rests on a roller or its cquis'fal'ent and between two upright plates or standards, or' against one ot' the same, by which it is moved 'along on the roller when the carriage from which said plate or plates extend-is in rectilinear movement;

21nd besides this', the roller in the meantime is moved vertically toward and away from the cuttereylinder, so asr to make the ox-bow taper from eachend toward its middle, and .at the Sametime be maderound laterally on its .upper surface, and the bark be kept on lits lower ed ge or surface., The rear standard, T, not only performs Vthe function of moving' 'the stick forl and made to operate ward, but, by its lbein'ga 'plate or presenting` broad, at surface on its front, it allows said stick to be moved laterally, as maybe necessary to properly accommodate it to the cuttercylinder, however crooked the stick `may be. After the stick has been reduced, the crooks are removed by well known means.

What, therefore, l claim as my invention is- The roller or its equivalent and the broad plate standard or standards, as combined withor used in connection with the patterns, car ringe, andthe cutter-wheel, and constructed whilebeing reduced the forward and lateral movements necessary to its proper reduction, as herenbefore specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature.

nlnAM s. Denison.

Witnesses:

It. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr.

therewith, substantially n as described, in order that a crooked piece of wood'or ox-bow blank may have imparted to it 

